Mexican law enforcement sources confirmed the capture to Breitbart Texas of Luis Miguel “Flako Sierra” Mercado by a team of military personnel and state police forces. The capture comes just weeks after the Tamaulipas government kicked off an intelligence sharing partnership and an international crime stoppers program with various U.S. federal agencies, Breitbart Texas reported at the time.

For the first time, Texas and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas are collaborating in a campaign involving community members with the purpose of increasing border security. This campaign is like no other seen before. Residents on both sides of the border will be able to report crimes to authorities on the U.S. side, to improve security and the quality of life of the people who live in both Mexico and the United States. This will have a strong impact on the economic development.
The governor of the Mexican state Tamaulipas, Francisco Javier García Cabeza De Vaca and the South Texas Corridor Commander, Manuel Padilla, inaugurated the campaign “Campana de Seguridad y Prosperidad” or Safety and Prosperity Campaign.
It’s a joint effort to dismantle criminal organizations by providing residents an opportunity to report crimes. A telephone number was established at which residents on both sides of the border can call with any information on criminal activity, they can even do so anonymously.
A joint effort between Mexico and the U.S is nothing new, but it’s the fact that community members are now part of the collaboration picture.

Nine months in, the Trump administration remains hobbled by an unprecedented number of vacant positions, with nearly 272 key jobs lacking a nominee and some 180 nominees awaiting Senate confirmation. Some of those delays are costlier than others.

Take Kevin McAleenan, who has been acting commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) since the Obama administration ended on Jan. 20. Trump formally nominated him in March to head the CBP, a crucial role in seeing through the administration’s plans to bolster border security, implement a better NAFTA deal and tighten immigration policies.

Six months later, McAleenan’s nomination is only now being heard by the Senate Finance Committee, a delay that has cast a pall of uncertainty over the CBP’s long-term leadership as well as other key positions, such as border patrol chief.

In the 2016 presidential election cycle, illegal immigration was generally attributed to Mexican migrants and a border wall was prescribed to prevent them from entering the United States. While the rhetoric resonated with many voters, it belied the vastly more complex trends in illegal border crossings and what is needed to address them. Most undocumented migrants arriving at the US border today are not Mexican, and a border wall will not affect what happens when they arrive.

Last year, Border Patrol apprehended nearly 409,000 people attempting to illegally cross the southwest border, a dramatic increase from the 331,000 in 2015, though somewhat less than the high mark of 479,000 in 2014. Last year, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Border Patrol apprehended 59,757 unaccompanied children and 77,857 family units, respectively a 13 percent decline and 12 percent increase from 2014. Border apprehensions are often an indicator of how many people are entering the United States undetected, but the numbers in 2016 do not tell the whole story.

According to the Pew Research Center, there was no statistically significant change in the illegal immigrant population in the United States between 2009 and 2014. But that does not mean illegal entries have stalled. From 2009 to 2014, 13 states saw a change in the size of their unauthorized immigrant populations. In states where illegal populations decreased, it was because illegal Mexican residents left. In states where illegal populations increased, it was due to a growth in the number of residents from countries other than Mexico, which in many cases are those in Central America’s “Northern Triangle” (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras). Last year, the number of apprehensions from Central America exceeded those from Mexico, the second time that trend has been seen, with the previous instance in 2014.

For the lay viewer with no awareness of I&A, it suggested political participation where there is none. With Glawe’s nomination to permanently lead I&A, there is more politicking on the horizon, but this is a mistake — one that can be avoided if we put security before partisanship.

I&A is the only member of the intelligence community charged with sharing threat intelligence with state, local, tribal, territorial and private sector partners, as well as receiving information from those partners to share with DHS and the intelligence community. This mission is a direct answer to problems identified in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.